


Blooms of Hope

by SnowLili



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Burnt hometown, F/M, Field healthcare, wildfire - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26644354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowLili/pseuds/SnowLili
Summary: AU — Zack was sent for a search and rescue mission with Cloud. He met Aerith and Tifa and learns how hope heals physical and emotional pain. So long as there’s a next breath, there will always be a new beginning. — Written for ZackWeek2020. Dedicated for the victims of Western North America Wildfire 2020 tragedy. [Zerith, slight Cloti]
Relationships: Cloud Strife/Tifa Lockhart, Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough
Kudos: 8





	Blooms of Hope

There are a lot of satisfaction in rescue mission. You get to help people on field directly, you get to watch them walk away healthily, and you get to see them thrive after tragedy if you’re lucky.

But a rescue mission at your own hometown? Not so much.

Zack breathes deeply through his mask, trying his best to look around with the limited view of the goggles of his fire helmet. The wildfire has spread through from Rocket Town to Nibelheim. And the sight is definitely not pretty. Most of the houses are burned down to the ground. Some furnitures exposed and damaged beyond repair. And the houses that still have their walls standing, most of the roofs are gone. None of the properties inside look salvageable. Playgrounds collapsed in its entirety and the only structure standing sturdily is a few huge metal bars that Zack presumed to be some kind of reactor. The air is thick with dust and smokes, painting the scene with a suffocating orangish hue.

Soldier units don’t usually help firemen in this kind of wildfire tragedy. But Nibelheim is a small town with dangerous reactor that it’s much safer to have infantries to help scouring landscape and evacuate victims.

Zack pushes some burnt bricks with the tip of his boot, clearing a path to accommodate his search and rescue. It doesn’t look good. Nibelheim seems to take the greatest damage from the calamity so far. Zack wonders if the reactor has anything to do with it. The entire town was engulfed in fire within minutes, and Zack dreads that perhaps none of the villagers were spared. He has definitely not found any survivors for sure. His head turns to look at his friend, worry gnawing the edge of his heart.

“Cloud,” he calls out, voice muffled behind the oxygen mask covering his face. “You can sit this one out if you need to. Kunsel, Luxiere and I can finish this up.” Zack couldn’t imagine looking around your own hometown to find zero survivors. Some of the victims might even be his family, or friends.

But Cloud doesn’t answer. The twenty-two-year-old soldier stood in a pile of ruins, eyes staring down to the ground. He’s still a couple of feet away from Zack, so perhaps Cloud didn’t hear Zack the first time, especially when their ears are covered by the fire helmets.

“Cloud!” Zack tries again, much louder this time. And when Cloud is still frozen in place, panic raids his heart almost in an instant, and he trudges through to Cloud. “Hey, Cloud!” His hand grips Cloud’s shoulder, relief filling him slightly when the guy finally looks up to him.

But Cloud’s eyes are blank, and his relief is short lived. “This is my house,” the blonde soldier mumbles. “Or what used to be at least.”

Zack looks around the pile of rubbles around their feet. He steps away just a bit to see any irregularities, wondering if there’s anything he could preserve, anything that could give his friend hope. The land is dry, cracked even. Not surprising since wildfires usually start because of dry hot air igniting them. His brows furrow when he notices the cracks seem to widen, and his eyes trace the source to the sturdy high metal bars plunged into the ground, except unlike before, they don’t look so stable anymore.

Zack wants to warn the other soldiers about them. The ground is probably not strong enough to hold any structure at the moment, and Nibelheim would need time to be compacted again. But the bars start to fall, and Zack notices they’re collapsing straight towards Cloud.

Zack didn’t think. There are at least ten of the huge bars toppling over. And Cloud doesn’t deserve the physical pain on top of the emotional one he already had. So Zack jumps forward, pushing Cloud out of the way before the last thing he knows is how he was rained by multiple heavy bars knocking out his consciousness, and Cloud’s voice shouting in terror.

* * *

The moment he opens his eyes, all he could see is the flashing of bright light and the contour of a brown haired woman with bright green eyes. So green like the beautiful garden of Gongaga, so green like home. His sight is still blurry, but she’s beautiful. The glowing light around her makes her look even more ethereal. He wonders if he is dead after that accident. And if that’s so—

“An angel?” He strains to focus his vision on the woman before him.

The woman blinks, gasping slightly as if she’s surprised that he’s awake. But she chuckles slightly when his implication hits. “That’s a first for someone to mistake me for an angel. But no, I’m Aerith.”

It doesn’t make sense that she could be anything but an angel. She’s too beautiful for this world. He frowns slightly, a bit dizzy with all the flashing lights around him. “Heaven?”

Aerith blinks before turning to the light focusing on him. “Oops, sorry,” she reaches out to switch off the light and turns back to him. “I didn’t realise you’re awake. Shouldn’t have subjected you to too much light when you wake up. You’re actually in a soldier camp on the outskirts of Nibelheim,” she explains. “You fainted when the metal bars fell onto you. They brought you to me to help you out.”

Zack could finally make out the dark green textile draping into a spacious tent around him, filled with some boxes and an old ventilator machine at one corner. “This is a makeshift hospital? I’m alive?”

“Very much so,” Aerith nods with a smile. “And yes, I’m volunteering as an anaesthetist on field during this disaster. A little difficult to work with limited resources but it’ll do. Luckily your injury wasn’t that bad and all I needed was to secure your airway and correct your biochemical parameters.”

Zack’s lips crack slightly when he tries to smile, his voice hoarse. “Why do I feel like that sounds so embarrassing?”

“Other than the fact that I’ve seen your entire body in and out? Not really.” There’s a hint of tease in her voice and Zack groans.

“Yup, embarrassing indeed,” he sighs. Still, he’s glad he’s alive. He loved his family and friends and he would gladly protect them if he has to. But he’s definitely not suicidal. He doesn’t want to give up living and achieving his dream, at least not before fighting his hardest for that. And that thought brings him back to why he’s here in the first place. “Cloud. Is he okay?” He looks back at Aerith. And yes, she’s still beautiful, even if she’s not an angel.

“The infantry you saved?” Aerith makes a guess. “Well, depends on what okay is to you. This wildfire tragedy has hurt people physically and mentally. Lieutenant Strife needs to get help from a psychiatrist after you passed out the past two days.”

“I’ve been out for two days?” It sure feels like just a few minutes in fact. “Can I go see him?” He pushes his hands on the makeshift bed to lift up his body, noticing right away that he’s very much naked beneath the heavy blanket, with a lot of wires attached to his skin.

“One more day,” Aerith’s hand lands on his bare chest—her hand soft but firm in contrast to how petite she looks—pushing him back to lie down again. “You just woke up. It’s not safe for you to walk around with the remnants of anaesthetic drugs in your blood. Besides, you’ll meet him. You had trauma yourself, you’ll need to see the psychiatrist as well.”

* * *

Aerith nurses him very diligently. Zack wonders if she even rests, or if she doesn’t have any other patients. It sure feels like she’s staying by his side the whole day. But if that’s so then, perhaps he was right. There’s really no survivor in the Nibelheim wildfire after all, which explains why he’s probably the only patient around. The implication hurts him more than he would like to admit. And he really wishes to see Cloud as soon as possible.

“We’re relocating in five days once the soldiers are done surveying the area. Hopefully we get to save some people this time,” Aerith says to him after they finished their lunch.

“Where to?” Zack leans towards her who is sitting by his side on the military foldable camping bed. The cloth is uncomfortable as hell, but he’s used to it by now.

“Ancient Forest,” Aerith places the map on his lap. There’s a pleasant comfort at her proximity that Zack couldn’t explain why. The worn out Gaia map is marked with a few red crosses along the line from Rocket Town to Ancient Forest, in which Zack assumes the wildfires had spread to.

Her next words though, almost make his heart stopped. “They predicted the next town might be Gongaga.”

His hands are cold and clammy. And Zack’s pretty sure it has nothing to do with his accident, or anaesthetic drugs for that matter.

“Zack?” Aerith eyes fix him with concern.

He couldn’t think, not that he’s any good in thinking. The words stuck in his throat. And even when he manages to force them out, they’re shaky and he doesn’t even recognise his own voice. “That’s my hometown.”

Aerith’s eyes widen just a second in consternation. Then she looks down to the map, deliberating how she could’ve make this better for him. She decides that no word from her would help—not a lie, not false hope either. So she scoots closer to him, hips bumping together before she draws him into a tight hug. Her arms wind around his neck, pulling his face to the crook of her nape.

And he silently cries.

She smells like a flower garden. So earthy and fragrant and sweet like fresh bouquets. Her delicate fingers tracing the length of his hair, smoothing out each knots gently as he tightens his arms around her, muffling his sobs into her skin. She doesn’t pull away. Not even when the embrace tightens and she’s literally resting on his lap. He could feel the steady drum of her heartbeat, thumping against his own in a synchronised rhythm. And just like that, he knows he’s alive, and all hope is not lost.

* * *

He has a huge urge to move to Gongaga immediately. He doesn’t want to wait five more days for it. It would have been too late then. But obviously Aerith denies him. She helps him to call his parents, and he practically dictates his parents to evacuate their hometown immediately. His parents tell him they were informed of the update, and most of Gongagans are already evacuating. That puts Zack at ease, even though he’s still hurting for Cloud. And then his parents insist him to bring back that sweet girl that called them for him because apparently she’ll make a great wife just from the sound of her voice. It doesn’t help that Aerith half shouts into the receiver that they’ll come visit, even though to be fair, they are visiting since they’re relocating down there in a few days. But the context is so troubling and Zack blushes at the sly innuendos.

Aerith just laughs though. She’s enjoying this too much, it drives him crazy.

The psychiatrist visits him the next day. She has a soft look woven with serenity. Zack would have said that’s typical for a psychiatrist. They usually have a penchant for making people feel easy and want to talk, since that’s practically their job. But her crimson eyes don’t hold the same tranquility as her face so determinedly indicates.

“Captain Zack Fair, I suppose?” She starts, a smile curves on her slightly pouty lower lip. “I’m Dr Lockhart. Dr Gainsborough referred you to me, as you probably already know.”

She asks him a few questions and surveys, mostly to know if he’s in any emotional trauma or in denial of any. He’s not exactly in the best mental state when she visits. He’s still slightly worried about his parents, even if they assured him they’re already evacuating. So it doesn’t surprise him when Dr Lockhart informs him that he has mild depression, but not too severe.

Well, he had Aerith to cry on. He really, _really_ should thank her somehow.

Zack traces the lines under the eyes of his psychiatrist with his own. He wonders how her life is, facing emotionally scarred people on daily basis, doing and saying everything to treat fragile souls. How selfless could a psychiatrist be to treat strangers as if their own? Zack notices the dim grieved lines at the corner of her eyes, and he couldn’t stop himself from asking at the end of his session.

“Are you okay, Dr Lockhart?”

His question visibly catches her off guard that Zack’s heart throbs in pain. Perhaps she’s so used to curing others that others forget that she needs to be cured too. Perhaps she’s so used to listening to others that others forget that she needs to be heard too.

She recovers very quickly though. “I’m fine. I’m supposed to be the psychiatrist here,” she laughs good-naturedly.

Zack argues that yes, she’s supposed to be the psychiatrist, yet she’s also human. But she’s already wrapping up their session and it’s pretty clear she doesn’t particularly want to talk. So Zack lets her go.

* * *

Zack finally gets to visit Cloud the next day. Cloud is packing his military backpack in the soldiers tent, preparing for the relocation. But he looks better than when he last saw him in the middle of the rubbles of his own house. Zack unknowingly lets out a sigh of relief. At least he didn’t have an incurable trauma or something.

“You’re looking worse for wear,” he teases, the corner of his lips curve up into a small grin.

Cloud halts his movement, shifting his blue eyes up to look at his best friend—one of his only friends actually, considering he’s socially inept. “So are you,” the blonde guy titters before his face contorts into a small scowl. “You shouldn’t have done that for me.”

Of course Cloud would worry for him. Cloud worries about everything. But he would rather die before letting any harms get to Cloud, especially when the blonde is helpless. “You were distracted. Plus my body is bigger so I can take bigger hits than you.”

Cloud scrunches his face in disgust. “First of all, just because I’m shorter doesn’t mean I’m fragile. I can wipe the floor with your ass in a spar. Secondly, human bodies don’t work that way.”

Zack laughs. “Don’t bother about small details. You’ll get old real fast, buddy.”

Cloud shakes his head, half amused. “You’re probably about the only person I know who could laugh when you’re at the brink of death.”

“You’re exaggerating. I wasn’t dying.” Maybe.

“Zack! You’re okay!” Kunsel’s voice bombards the tent as he approaches the two, and the man practically glomps Zack with his weight. And Zack does what he does best; he laughs. “Man I was scared you might die for sure!”

“Sorry to disappoint you, buddy. But you’ll have to put up with me for a long time. I’m not dying anytime soon,” Zack jokes.

“Hell, I’ll fight Cloud to be your Best Man. I’ll put up with any shit you’re giving me if that position is mine,” Kunsel chirps.

“Nope,” Cloud shakes his head firmly. “Not having it.”

“Wait, where did this Best Man thing come from? I don’t even have a girlfriend!” Zack’s voice is a mix of protest and confusion.

“Didn’t have,” Kunsel points a finger at Zack, as if he’s correcting a known fact. “Everyone knows our field anaesthetist is having a hot for you. She never leaves you all the time when you’re in that makeshift hospital, or tent, or whatever.”

“She’s my anaesthetist, guys! It’s her professional duty to take care of her patients.”

“Well, you’re not a patient anymore,” Kunsel shrugs. “Who knows what might happen. Besides, I saw the two of you hugging and kissing—“

“We didn’t kiss,” Zack groans. “And you stalked me but never visited me?”

“I wanted to,” Cloud says. “But Tifa said considering the state of both of our mental aptitude during that time, it’s probably not a very good idea.”

“Who’s Tifa?”

“Our psychiatrist. Dr Lockhart?”

“You know her?”

“We’re childhood friends.”

Zack lost his voice. His throat feels dry, his heart thumping erratically, he’s not even sure if it’s normal anymore.

* * *

“Your hometown is destroyed and here you are curing people’s souls and yet you’re breaking inside.”

Tifa looks up to the tall raven haired guy. Recognition dawns on her that he probably finds out already that she’s volunteering to be a field psychiatrist to a mission that destroys her home and family. She smiles. “Everyone is hurting when a tragedy strikes. I can’t be selfish and cry alone when I have the means to help. Aren’t you the same when you saved Cloud from the fallen metal bars?”

Zack scratches the back of his head, feeling a bit awkward when someone pointed it out to his face. “Yeah but, you could have talked to me or something,” he hesitates a bit when he realises he probably self imposed himself. It only occurs to him then that they’re not friends or anything. “Actually, forget I said anything. I wasn’t thinking,” he pivots his heel to leave the lady.

“I didn’t want to because you were a patient,” Tifa stops him. “Now that you’re discharged, perhaps we can go for a coffee or two?”

Zack’s face beams into a huge grin. “I’d like that.”

* * *

The day they’re departing to Ancient Forest, Zack offers to carry Aerith’s backpack. He reasons to her that he has more energy and strength than her, and she needs to save her own energy in case she needs to literally save people’s lives. She shakes her head at his insistence but she lets him anyway. Besides, she secretly hopes to travel with him by her side, spends more time getting to know him beyond the doctor-patient relationship. Not that she would admit it to him right now though.

“Cloud and Tifa are looking so much better, huh.” Aerith looks up to see the two subjects walking side by side way to their front. They’re all heading to the point where the military airship will fetch them.

“They’re stronger than people give them credits to,” Zack agrees fondly. He hauls Aerith’s backpack on his back while he hangs his to his front, adjusting so that he can still walk and see well. Fortunately his own isn’t that big.

“I think it’s probably because they found each other, _saved_ each other even,” Aerith starts walking when Zack does, following the pack towards their meeting point. “This mission turns out to be more than what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“Pain, despair, hopelessness,” Aerith lists.

Zack gasps. “You’re being way too negative.”

“Perhaps,” she doesn’t bother to deny. She does expect that before they left. “But it’s great to discover love, strength and hope instead.”

Zack glances at her, drinking the soft contour of her side profile. She’s wearing a light pink button-down dress with a red bolero jacket, in contrast to the maroon scrub she was wearing when she treated him. She still looks beautiful in anything.

“I haven’t thank you yet for treating me,” Zack blurts out.

“Don’t worry about it,” Aerith waves a hand in dismissal. “It’s my job to take care of injured victims and soldiers on field.”

“You’re an anaesthetist, Aerith. Your job is to cure people physically. Mental and emotional part is supposed to be the psychiatrist job, and yet you held me when I cried. You helped me call my parents when my mind shut down. You stayed by my side and talked to me,” Zack observes her closely by his side.

She doesn’t answer. She doesn’t look at him either. But he could still see the soft blush dusting her cheeks, adorning her face across the adorable little smile she has on. Zack wishes she would say something, but after a minute or two, it’s pretty clear that she’s not going to. A part of him is a bit disappointed, but she couldn’t have blushed if what he said didn’t hold any truth, could she?

And so he tries another push. “How about I repay you with one date? And maybe we’ll see how it goes from there.”

Her eyes finally shift to meet his. And her blush darkens, her grin widens. “You’re pretty overconfident that everything would go well from here, huh?”

“Not overconfident,” Zack shakes his head. “Life itself is fragile. People die every second, every minute, yet those who are left behind have to continue living. We pace one step at a time, grieving some losses but never lose hope. At least until the final second of our last breath. Don’t you think it’s easier to have something to look forward to?”

She smiles, gently weaving her fingers between his, surprising him slightly at her boldness. She’s not shy, he notices. Good, he loves woman who knows what she wants.

“You’re right. One date out of many then,” she gives his hand a tiny squeeze. “After all, we’ve got to look forward, not back, eh?”

He slows down his pace to match hers, since his legs are longer and it feels so easy to leave her behind if he’s not careful. But he definitely doesn’t mind the leisure pace, or the warm hand intertwined with his. And together, they can go farther beyond.

Her subtle way to tell him how much she wants to spend time with him just fills his heart with so much love that he ends up pulling her close to him. “Then let’s defy fate and have many more promises beyond that.”

She nods. “Yep. Life will take away important things sometimes. There’ll be a few doors close for us. But as long as we’re alive, I believe a thousand more doors stand open.”

Zack looks forward to Cloud and Tifa, calm contented smiles on their faces. And as he walks with Aerith’s hand in his, he believes. “Yeah, you’re absolutely right.”

* * *

**THE END**

**Author's Note:**

> To all survivors and victims of the Western North America Wildfire 2020 tragedy, may you find strength, love and hope in all the trials life puts you through.


End file.
